Understanding Duress in Prolonged Conflicts: The Case of Casamance
Living in an area that has been a victim of a prolonged and violent conflict has a great impact on the people who originate from these areas or who are still living there. Enduring such hardships for years or perhaps even generations can have a significant impact on the lives, ways of thinking and even [&hellip
Researching west Africa in the 21st century
In this essay, I will examine the themes of the course researching Africa in the 21st century in relation to my dissertation topic of ‘anti-French sentiment’ in West Africa. Firstly, I will analyze the impact of globalization, digitalization, and social media. Social media have become the main platf
Africa, the 21st Century, and Beyond
Africa has – for all its history – found itself in a unique situation compared to the rest of the world. Despite numerous centuries of oppression and destructive exploitation, it has always bounced back to celebrate its richness and tenacity. Considering the demographic catastrophe that was the sla
Decolonisation in health care
Introduction This paper deals with various topics that are important in conducting research in and about Africa in the context of health. In this paper, I will discuss what debate is going on about decolonization in health care in which it becomes clear how colonial power relations still apply in the distributi
Reflections on Researching Africa in the 21st Century.
Researching Africa in the twenty-first century is shaping up to be very different from previous times. First of all, the increasing scope of Africa not only as a place subject to its history, poverty, and corruption, but also as a viable socio-economic player in the international game. The new ways of re
Crisis thinking – In theory and Practice.
Disaster, Catastrophe, Emergency. Crisis. The world is full of them. Be this in the form of natural disasters, catastrophic wars, or climate emergencies; crisis is painted as the umbrella term for these events. It triggers acute responses by individuals, governments, organisations, and so on. A sc
Decolonising the mind? – Where to look.
The ongoing debate of current African studies as well as the wider world is the concept of decolonising the mind. While for many Westerners the idea that African states gained independence decades ago and that was the end of it, the truth is evident across an array of social levels. Three personal and tw
Researching Gender-Based Violence in South Africa in the 21st Century
This essay will combine several insights from the course Researching Africa in the 21st Century with preliminary ideas I have about my own research and fieldwork in South Africa, where I will be dealing with the topic of gender-based violence. Firstly, I will write about gender-based violence within the framewo
Crisis Thinking: A video of Save the Children
In this mini documentary, Hilde and I (Evelien) had a closer look at a video published by Save the Children to ask for donations for fighting malnutrition in Somalia. We discuss crisis thinking, harmful discourses, a white saviour complex, and commodification of the black body. Our question remains: How ethica
Dismantling the Global Hegemonic Structure of Hierarchy within Academia
Over the past seven weeks, we have discussed various issues around studying Africa and debates within the field of African studies. Scholars are calling for epistemological freedom, decolonisation of the field, and to break the cycle of western dominance. This essay will argue that the hierarchical system withi